Dragon Age Fic: Corrections – Josephine/M!Inquisitor (NC-17) 8/?

[anxiousgeek.livejournal.com]

Title: Corrections
Fandom: Dragon Age Inquisition
Rating: Adult
Character/Pairing: Josephine/M!Inquisitor
Spoilers: None
Warnings: Smut, romance, angst, fluff.
Summary: Josephine and Maxwell Travelyan met for the first time at Lady Trevelyan’s summer ball when they were young adults. Now, a decade later and Max is the Herald and Josephine his Ambassador.
Notes: Another Dragon Age Kink Meme prompt with a life of it’s own.  A WIP. Damn.

Giddy

Her father was giddy.

Josephine had seen him like this twice before; on her younger brother’s wedding day and when she had introduced him to Empress Celene. Her mother said he was giddy when she and her siblings were born too but she doesn’t quite remember it.

She assumed it was either because her fiancé was on his way or because he was about to meet the Inquisitor; who had arrived back in Skyhold that morning. They were due to have dinner together, with some of his companions and while her father was looking forward to the affair, Josephine was dreading it.

It would be the first time they would spend any time together outside of the War Room and the one short talk they’d had just before he’d left for Sahrnia. She wasn’t looking forward to it and hoped he and her father had a lot to talk about because she wasn’t sure Maxwell would have anything to say to her at all.

Which broke her heart a little because they used to talk about everything.

She missed him.

Josephine shook the thought away and looked over her wardrobe. She didn’t quite have the wardrobe she’d had in Orlais, or even at home, but she’d had a few dresses tailored for more formal functions the Inquisition put together for supporting nobles on occasion. She chose something in purple, a comforting colour and not too daring for dinner with her friends and father. She twisted her hair into her usual style, added a little kohl to her eyes, a little blush to her cheeks to hide the sickly colour of her usually bronzed cheeks. Anxiety was not becoming.

There was a knock on the door and she turned away from the mirror and opened it.

“Father,” she said, with a smile. He looked exceptional in his formal tunic waistcoat.

“Are you ready?”

“Yes, yes.”

“It will be fun Josephine,” he told her, linking their arms together as she left her room. “You worry too much.”

She hoped he was right as they head down to main hall for dinner.

x

Dinner wasn’t as awful as Josephine had expected.

Despite convention dictating otherwise, Maxwell insisted that her father sit at the head of the dinner table, she and the Inquisitor sitting either side of him, opposite each other. He looked well after his trip to Sahrnia, and even smiled at her occasionally as her father kept him deep in conversation about…everything. Despite having Leliana to her right, she took her time to sit and look at him, feeling like it was the first time she was able to do so without any tension between them for weeks now.

That is was possibly the last time as well did not escape her attentions and even as she enjoyed the meal and his brief smiles in her direction she still felt sad.

When her father stood up with his wine in one hand, wobbling on his feet a little, she realised he was going to say something. She was tempted to stand and convince him to sit back down, if only because he was already a little unsteady on his feet from the wine he’d consumed with dinner but he looked so happy.

Giddy.

“I have an announcement to make,” he said, words clear despite his inebriation. He looked down at her and smiled warmly and reached out to take her hand. She clasped it and let him pull her to her feet, wrapping an arm around her and holding her close. She blushed bright red as all her friends looked at her. As Maxwell looked at her.

“As you know, I have been searching for a husband for my eldest daughter Josephine,” he said, and she felt her cheeks blaze hotter and she stared down at the table, not daring a glance at Maxwell. “Recently I found the perfect suitor for her, and it is my honour to welcome the Inquisitor into my family as my daughter’s husband.”

“What?!” Her head snapped up and Maxwell got out of his chair at her father’s urging, looking somewhat sheepish again but happy. “Maxwell?”

“Congratulations!” Leliana said, grinning at her friend.

“Let us toast this union!” her father said giddy still, and he drained his glass without saying another word, the rest of the group toasting to their health even as Josephine stood there staring at Maxwell in shock and he smiled back at her.

Her father fell into his seat suddenly, almost pulling Josephine down with him and Maxwell came around the table quickly to catch her, wrapping an arm around her waist.

“I promise I’ll explain,” he said quietly, both of them aware of their friends staring at them.

“Do you truly mean to marry me?” she asked, trying not to look away from his dark eyes and his smile.

“Yes.”

“Then that will do for now,” she said, pulling away from him, not quite managing to hide her own smile. “Let us finish dinner, then we’ll talk.”

He nodded and went to kiss her but she ducked away to the amusement of their friends, Bull and Varric laughing out loud, Leliana and Cassandra’s chuckles distinctive through it all. She blushed red again.

“Not yet Inquisitor,” she told him quietly. “Not in front of my father.”

He grinned at her, that cocky grin of the kid she had first met and she smiled back.

x

By time dinner was over and they got a chance to talk Josephine was both overjoyed and angry. She escorted her father back to his room. Well, she escorted Bull who was carrying her father back to his room the Qunari muttering about how artists couldn’t hold their drink the entire time. When she was satisfied he was settled in his bed she went looking for Maxwell.

He was in her office waiting for her, leaning against her desk in his formal clothes, looking stupidly handsome and damn pleased with himself and he smiled at her as she walked in.

“Your father okay?” he asked.

“He’ll be sore in the morning, but he will be fine. He gets…giddy sometimes.”

“Giddy?”

She nodded but didn’t elaborate. She wasn’t sure she could.

“How long have you known?” she asked.

“I didn’t know for sure until this morning.”

“This morning?”

Maxwell moved towards her, urging her to sit on the sofa with him and she did so but kept her distance. He frowned but didn’t push.

“Your father said he sent a letter accepting my proposal but I never received anything.”

“He probably never sent it,” she said with a laugh and he smiled. “When you left for Sahrnia?”

“I had asked, written to him a couple of times and gotten a couple of promising replies back but no confirmation until I met him this morning.”

“This morning,” she repeated. “Why? Why did you do this?”

He laughed then, reaching out to touch the leather cord holding the amulet around her neck, tracing it down to the amulet between her breasts.

“Oh Josie,” he said, leaning forward to kiss her on the cheek. “Because I love you.”

She didn’t answer, couldn’t answer for a moment.

“I love you too Maxwell, I can’t believe you did this.”

“I was reliably informed I had a good chance. I am a noble, I own land, I’m the figure head of a major religious movement and trying to save the world.”

“Reliably informed by who?” Josephine asked, raising an eyebrow. “As if I can’t guess.”

“Leliana,” he said, that sheepish look on his face once more and she chuckled.

“That explains some things.”

“I’m sorry if I have deceived you Josie.”

“Josephine,” she said.

“Really?” he said. “You’re going to corrected me even though we’re engaged.”

“Absolutely Maxwell.”

He laughed pulling her closer to him on the sofa so he could kiss her on the lips this time, soft and chaste.

“Is this okay?” he whispered.

“The kiss?”

“No, well, yes, but the engagement, your father choosing me, the whole arrangement.”

He was worried, she realised, that he’d done the wrong thing even though they loved each other and she smiled and kissed him, deeper this time until she couldn’t breathe.

“It’s fine,” she said, gasping slightly when she pulled away. “I don’t know what I would’ve done, having to marry another man and watch you find another person to love.”

He shook his head, cupping her cheek.

“No, I would never choose to marry anyone else,” he said, “I would’ve found a way, or Leliana would’ve found a way. I would fight any man for you.”

“You’re a fool,” she said, feeling the smile on her face widen anyway. “And Antivan’s duel. We do not fight.”

“I’m sorry my lady,” he said. “I would duel for you. Die for you.”

“No, no dying for me Maxwell. Promise.”

He hesitated and her heart dropped to her stomach.

“I’m not sure I can Josie,” he said, “I don’t know what’s going to happen or how to defeat Corypheus.”

“Max…”

“But I will do everything in my power to make it back to you. That I can promise.”

Blinking back the tears in her eyes she nodded and he kissed her, pulling her into his lap so he could wrap his arms around her. She shifted so that she was straddling him, kissing back fiercely and running her hands up into his dark hair.

“You are everything to me Josephine Montilyet,” he muttered between kisses.

“I missed you,” she said, “these last few weeks.”

“I missed you too.”

She smiled at that, and then moaned when he started to kiss over her jaw and down her neck.

“What are you doing?” she asked, feeling his hands – rougher after a decade of working with a great-sword – on her thighs pushing the material of her dress up slowly.

“Trying to get into your smalls?” he said, and she wiped the cocky grin off his face with another kiss.

“Not here,” she said. “Not yet.”

“My quarters?” he asked. “Or is this a wait until we’re married thing? Because I would.”

“No, but I would rather not make love to you for the first time in ten years in my office or with my father in earshot.”

He laughed then.

“You think I’ll manage to make you scream loud enough that he’ll hear you from my quarters?” he asked, with a wink.

“No, I think I’ll manage to make you scream loud enough that he’ll hear you from your quarters,” she said and he groaned.

“You are an evil, evil woman.”

She smiled at him, lifting herself up and off his lap, brushing the skirts of her dress down as she stood.

“Escort me to my quarters my lord?” she asked, holding out a hand to him. He took it and stood with a grace usually hidden beneath his armour.

“My pleasure my lady.”